He says the committee and planning staff decided to focus on the problem first brought to them – Lafayette’s Chatham Square neighborhood where investors purchased three homes in which they never intended to live.

“We acted to try to take care of that situation without destroying the whole system,” Leverenz says.

Leverenz says planners may come back later with more feasible rules for owner-occupied short-term rentals.

Area Plan Commission Executive Director Sallie Fahey says the county zoning ordinance was adopted long before the online sharing economy existed.

“Our cities change, our technologies change, and we need to keep up with those changes,” Fahey says. “But we need to make sure, in my business, that citizens are also protected.”

The APC will consider the zoning change at its regular meeting 6 p.m. Wednesday in the county office building at 20 N. Third St. in downtown Lafayette.

If the Commission recommends approval of the change, the amendment will be sent to city, town and county leaders for final adoption.

A Tippecanoe County law would drastically restrict the number of days county residents could rent their homes out to visitors on websites such as Airbnb. But the law could be hamstrung by a bill making its way through the state legislature.